Brown Circuit Court has granted Robert Eastwood a hearing on correcting what he believes to be an erroneous sentence.
It will take place at 11 a.m. Monday, March 28.
Eastwood, 64, was sentenced in January 2012 to 30 years in prison for molesting a 5-year-old girl at his wife’s day care on Grandma Barnes Road in 2002 and 2003. The day care is no longer operating.
Federal authorities arrested Eastwood in 2011 after finding him in a hidden compartment he had built in a house in Crawford County, Illinois. A warrant for his arrest had been issued more than seven years earlier, in January 2004.
From Miami Correctional Facility in Bunker Hill, Eastwood filed a motion Oct. 26 to correct his sentence. He said the court used “illegal aggravators” to enhance it beyond the minimum and did not give mitigating circumstances “proper weight.”
Eastwood said in the motion that he had lived a productive, law-abiding life for 60 years. He had no criminal history prior to the case, except for a self-reported DUI when he was 19.
He also cited support from family and friends and heart disease as circumstances that were not given enough consideration before he was sentenced.
Woman reports fight, faces drug charges
A Lebanon woman faces drug charges after she called police about a fight with her boyfriend. Around 4:30 a.m. Feb. 5, Brown County Sheriff Deputies Rick Followell and Joshua Stargell responded to a call from a woman who was unsure where she was. She said she was in a log cabin bedroom with a red truck in the driveway.Followell and Stargell arrived at a cabin on Gatesville Road, and Misty L. Harville, 41, ran out and jumped into the back seat of Stargell’s police vehicle, a probable cause affidavit said.
She told Stargell that she was fighting with her boyfriend and he had left in her car. She refused to give the officers her boyfriend’s name.
She told police that her boyfriend may be under the influence of cocaine and that she did a “line or two of cocaine” earlier in the evening.
She asked the officers to give her a ride to the sheriff’s department from the cabin and said that a friend could pick her up later.
Followell went inside to retrieve her belongings. She told Followell that if he found a box of marijuana, that she did not want it anymore because she did not want to get into trouble.
At the sheriff’s department, Stargell reported finding a box with a gram of marijuana inside in Harville’s purse.
While officers were searching another bag of hers, she handed Followell pill containers containing 28 methadone tablets and five carisoprodol pills. Both are controlled substances. She could not produce a prescription for either, the police report said.
Harville was booked into the Brown County jail. She was charged Feb. 5 with two counts of possession of a controlled substance, a Class A misdemeanor; and possession of marijuana, a Class B misdemeanor.
Driver faces counts for
possession, paraphernaliaAn Illinois woman who showed police a Michigan medical marijuana card was arrested on drug and reckless driving charges in Nashville.On Jan. 7, an off-duty Bartholomew County police officer reported an SUV going more than 80 mph with its hazard lights on toward Nashville on State Road 46 East.
Nashville Police Officer Brian Shrader clocked it going 71 mph near Snyder Road in a 40 mph zone. He stopped it near the jail.
Shrader noted that driver Marlena E. Levesque, 30, was frantic. She told the officer she was having “a very bad day,” the report said.
After explaining why he pulled her over, Levesque told the officer she did not know where she was and that she missed a court date in Detroit, because her car broke down in Columbus, the report said.
She also told Shrader she was speeding because she was about to run out of gas.
When asked if there was anything illegal in the car, Levesque said she had a medical marijuana card from Michigan. Shrader asked her if she knew what state she was in and she said she knew she was in Indiana, the report said.
The officer reported discovering several items of paraphernalia and a small baggie of marijuana. His report said that she admitted to smoking it.
Levesque was charged with possession of marijuana, a Class B misdemeanor; possession of paraphernalia, a Class C misdemeanor; and reckless driving, a Class C misdemeanor.
Police: Nashville man shoved, choked woman
A Nashville man has been charged with felony battery after police say he shoved and choked a woman in the presence of a child.Brown County Sheriff’s Deputy Bill Southerland reported in a probable cause affidavit that the woman said Matthew W. Stinson, 31, grabbed the woman around the neck with both hands. She said he shoved her against a wall, restricting her ability to breathe.
Southerland reported seeing a crack in the wall where the woman said her head hit it. She declined medical treatment.
Since the incident occurred within earshot of the children and with children in the home, Stinson was charged Feb. 5 with felony-level domestic battery.
He was also charged with strangulation, a Level 6 felony.
Nashville woman arrested twice in two days
A Nashville woman was arrested after police say she threw a vase at a man.
The victim told police that at about 12:45 a.m. Feb. 17, Amanda Cooper, 35, threw a vase at him, cutting his right middle finger, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Cooper was arrested and booked into the Brown County jail.
That was her second arrest that week. The previous day, she was arrested for operating while intoxicated after an officer reported that she almost hit his vehicle on Old State Road 46. Deputy Andrew Eggebrecht reported observing signs that Cooper was under the influence of a controlled substance.
She has been charged with battery resulting in bodily injury, a Class A misdemeanor, and disorderly conduct, Class B misdemeanor; no official charges had been filed regarding her OWI arrest as of press time.
Nashville teen arrested on OWI charges
A report of a reckless, impaired driver on Sweetwater Trail resulted in the arrest of a Nashville teen the evening of Feb. 13.Sgt. Mike Moore found the vehicle, which had been damaged in a crash, in the 9000 block of Sweetwater Trail.Moore reported the driver, Gabriel L. Rumsey, 19, was having trouble with his balance and could not remember where he had crashed. The officer’s report said Rumsey admitted to Moore that he had smoked marijuana and taken a Xanax before he crashed.
Rumsey was placed under arrest at the hospital after his blood was drawn.
On Feb. 17, he was charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated — endangering a person, a Class A misdemeanor; operating a vehicle while intoxicated, a Class C misdemeanor; operating a vehicle with a Schedule I or II controlled substance or its metabolite in the body, a Class C misdemeanor; and possession of paraphernalia, a Class C misdemeanor.
Ohio man arrested on OWI charges
An Ohio man faces drunken driving charges after being pulled over Feb. 13 Brown County.At around 1:30 a.m., Brown County Sheriff’s Deputy Josh Stargell was driving on State Road 46 East near the Speedway gas station when he saw a car turn partially into his lane of travel and continue eastbound on State Road 46, a press release from the sheriff’s department said.Stargell pulled the vehicle over at the Circle K gas station, and reported smelling alcohol on the driver, Robert Smith of Cincinatti, Ohio.
Smith refused a field sobriety test after being taken to jail. He was taken to Columbus Regional Hospital for a court-ordered blood draw where he continued to be “disorderly,” the release said.
He was booked on preliminary charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated with refusal, a Class A misdemeanor, and disorderly conduct, Class B misdemeanor.
Woman injured after swerving to miss deer
HAMBLEN TWP. — A Sweetwater Trail woman was injured around noon Feb. 6 after she swerved to miss a deer on Sweetwater Drive.Vanessa F. Hoseclaw, 59, lost control of her vehicle and struck a tree near the road, a report by Brown County Sheriff’s Deputy Randy Taggart said.She was taken to a hospital by Cordry Sweetwater Ambulance for a chest injury.
Her vehicle was towed. She was wearing a seat belt.
Driver rear-ends another on State Road 135
JACKSON TWP. — Two drivers were injured in a collision Jan. 20 on State Road 135 North.Heather C. Matthew, 22, Franklin, was southbound on State Road 135 North when she saw a pickup truck in front of her had slowed to turn left onto Hornettown Road.Matthew reported to police that she attempted to stop but slid into the rear of the truck driven by William S. Derringer, 37, Morgantown, according to an accident report by investigating officer Sgt. Mike Moore.
Matthew was taken to Johnson Memorial Hospital for a head injury. Derringer was checked out by EMS for back injuries but was not transported. He said he would go to the hospital on his own, a news release from the sheriff’s department said.
Matthew’s vehicle was towed. Both drivers were wearing seat belts.
